Description
Montjuïc is the broad hill that rises above Barcelona's harbor, southwest of the center: a patchwork of gardens, museums and Olympic venues, with a castle on top and the best views over the port. It is reached by funicular and cable car.
Its name means "Jewish Mountain" in medieval Latin and Catalan, because the city's Jewish community buried its dead on its slopes. Barcelona itself was born here, between the sea and the Llobregat river.
In Roman times the hill was the city's quarry, which changed its shape. On the summit, the 17th-century castle overlooks the harbor from a cliff-like eastern side. It shelled the city in 1842, and later served as a prison for political prisoners.
Anarchists were tortured and shot there, and in 1940 so was the Catalan president Lluís Companys, handed over to Franco by the Nazis. It is a dark chapter, and part of why the hill matters.
Then the hill became a showcase. The 1929 International Exposition gave it the grand Palau Nacional, now the National Art Museum of Catalonia, and the Magic Fountain at the foot of a long staircase, with illuminated fountains halfway up.
Also from 1929: the Poble Espanyol, a "Spanish village" of buildings in different regional styles, and Mies van der Rohe's German Pavilion, demolished in 1930 and rebuilt in 1988. The Fundació Joan Miró shows the work of the Barcelona painter.
In 1992 the hill was the heart of the Olympic Games. The stadium built in 1929, renamed after Companys, held the ceremonies, and around it rose the Olympic Ring, with the indoor arena Palau Sant Jordi and Santiago Calatrava's striking telecommunications tower.
The meter was partly born here: in 1794 the French astronomer Pierre Méchain took his measurements from the fortress. They helped work out the distance from the North Pole to the Equator, and from it the very first prototype meter.
The slopes are also a park. They were naturally wooded and used by neighbors to grow food and graze animals, until the forests were partly cleared in the 1890s to open space for gardens, and the 1929 exposition did the rest.
Don't miss
• The Magic Fountain.
• The Palau Nacional and its museum.
• The Fundació Joan Miró.
• The German Pavilion.
• The castle and its view.
Did you know?
• Formula One raced on its roads: after a crash killed four people in 1975, the Spanish Grand Prix never returned.
• The 1929 stadium was to host an anti-fascist alternative to the Berlin Olympics in 1936. The Civil War canceled it.
Its name means "Jewish Mountain" in medieval Latin and Catalan, because the city's Jewish community buried its dead on its slopes. Barcelona itself was born here, between the sea and the Llobregat river.
In Roman times the hill was the city's quarry, which changed its shape. On the summit, the 17th-century castle overlooks the harbor from a cliff-like eastern side. It shelled the city in 1842, and later served as a prison for political prisoners.
Anarchists were tortured and shot there, and in 1940 so was the Catalan president Lluís Companys, handed over to Franco by the Nazis. It is a dark chapter, and part of why the hill matters.
Then the hill became a showcase. The 1929 International Exposition gave it the grand Palau Nacional, now the National Art Museum of Catalonia, and the Magic Fountain at the foot of a long staircase, with illuminated fountains halfway up.
Also from 1929: the Poble Espanyol, a "Spanish village" of buildings in different regional styles, and Mies van der Rohe's German Pavilion, demolished in 1930 and rebuilt in 1988. The Fundació Joan Miró shows the work of the Barcelona painter.
In 1992 the hill was the heart of the Olympic Games. The stadium built in 1929, renamed after Companys, held the ceremonies, and around it rose the Olympic Ring, with the indoor arena Palau Sant Jordi and Santiago Calatrava's striking telecommunications tower.
The meter was partly born here: in 1794 the French astronomer Pierre Méchain took his measurements from the fortress. They helped work out the distance from the North Pole to the Equator, and from it the very first prototype meter.
The slopes are also a park. They were naturally wooded and used by neighbors to grow food and graze animals, until the forests were partly cleared in the 1890s to open space for gardens, and the 1929 exposition did the rest.
Don't miss
• The Magic Fountain.
• The Palau Nacional and its museum.
• The Fundació Joan Miró.
• The German Pavilion.
• The castle and its view.
Did you know?
• Formula One raced on its roads: after a crash killed four people in 1975, the Spanish Grand Prix never returned.
• The 1929 stadium was to host an anti-fascist alternative to the Berlin Olympics in 1936. The Civil War canceled it.